The Essex Plan
by Glaivester
Summary: Wanda is pregnant. How is an enemy from Scott and Magneto's past involved?
1. Essex's

Marvel owns the X-Men and related characters not me. Feel free to post. Takes place in an alternate third season that diverges sometime after "The Toad, the Witch and the Wardrobe." And, Spyke's powers are not going out of control. The Spider-Stone incident still happened, though.

A/N As a biochemistry student, I refuse to use the term "human" to distinguish non-mutants. I use the proper scientific term: wild type.

PG-13

Chapter the First

Essex's. The sign shown brightly over the "teen nightclub." 7:00 pm.

"Vow," whispered Kurt to Scott. "A nightclub designed specifically for mutants! Awesome!"

"Yeah," admitted Scott. "It is pretty cool."

Scott, Kurt, Kitty, Evan, Rogue, Bobby, Amara, and Jean walked into the club. It was specifically designed for teenagers; no alcohol, everything clean and good, nothing to worry parents about.

Scott walked up to the concessions and bought sodas for all of the group. While they were drinking, they spotted Pietro, Wanda, Blob, Todd, Tabby, and Lance on the other side of the room.

"Like, hello!" said Kitty to Lance. For a change, the Brotherhood seemed at ease to be around the X-Men. No anger, no rivalry, no nothing.

Kurt noted that there were a few wild-type humans hanging around. Most of them seemed like they wanted to see what the "freaks" were doing, but a few just seemed to want a good time.

There was dancing, but as the evening wore on, everyone seemed to be getting tired and more and more out of it. 

"This is like, so weird!" exclaimed Kitty to Pietro. "I feel so dizzy! You?"

"Yeah, X-geek," said Pietro, but without any malice. "I don't feel so good, either. Maybe we should go home."

But upon shaking Wanda's arm, Pietro found her to be a virtual zombie, dancing slowly along with Scott to the music. 

"Scott, man, Wanda's out of it!"

"Huh? Oh, that's strange." Scott couldn't help it, the fuzz in his head kept getting fuzzier. He could barely keep track of what was going on.

"Vow. I feel... I can't keep my thoughts together..." whispered Kurt from the concessions stand.

The next thing they knew, they were all waking up. Not in the mansion, but in the club. It was 3 am, and the Professor and Mystique were there, as well as Magneto and the Acolytes.

"When you weren't home by curfew, I got worried," explained the Professor to Jean and Scott, who had been passed out on the floor and were just waking up. "I called, but they said you had left when the place closed at 11:00 pm." I couldn't detect you with Cerebro, but eventually I decided to look here. This place has apparently been abandoned."

"What happened?" asked Scott.

"You appear to have been drugged," said the Professor. Probably in your drinks. And this nightclub was supposed to provide a safe place for teens to be on Saturdays!"

Mystique looked around, angry. "He even called me, and I decided to look for you in case you'd gotten yourself in trouble - which you have!"

"It wasn't their fault," said the Professor.

"Owww..." said Kurt as he woke up. "My arm!" There was a large chunk of hair missing and it was obvious that a tissue sample had been taken. "Someone cut me!"

"Hmmm..." said Magneto. "I have an idea who might have wanted to do this... get you drugged, then perform some experiments on you... or at least take some tissue samples. He has taken them, apparently, from all of the mutants in town."

"Most o' dem, anyway," said Gambit, "not us."

"Well, the teenagers. Or more precisely, those at the club. But he would definitely like your DNA as well. He has mine already."

"How?" asked Chuck.

"Do you think that I managed to enhance my mutant powers all by myself? I know of a professor who studies mutants very carefully. He is sort of a mutant himself, although not quite... his abilities were given to him, he wasn't born with them. He discovered the gems of Cytorak and gave them to your brother, Charles."

"So that is how Cain activated his X-gene?"

"Yes. He was the first enhanced mutant. I am another."

"Fascinating."

"The man I am thinking of was a friend of mine after you and I went our separate ways. But we also had a falling out. He believes that the future belongs only to 'super mutants,' whereas I believe that all mutants can live in peace with each other - just not with wild types. He refers to us not as _Homo superior_, but as _Homo sapiens superior_. True _Homo superior _are only those like me and Cain - enhanced."

"What is his name?"

"Same as this place. Essex. Dr. Nathaniel Essex."

Wanda suddenly walked out of the pool room. She looked disheveled, and she was desperately trying to cover herself with only her jacket, all the rest of her clothes being gone.

"What, what happened?"

"Nothing," said Wanda. Charles didn't try to scan her, as she could turn his power back on himself and fry his brain if he tried. "I just appear to have lost my clothes. Probably got drunk or something and got hot, so I took off my clothes to cool down." She looked at Magneto and turned beet red.


	2. Blue Tip

Marvel owns the X-Men and related characters not me. Feel free to post. Takes place in an alternate third season that diverges sometime after "The Toad, the Witch and the Wardrobe." And, Spyke's powers are not going out of control.

The crime had still not come any closer to a solution four weeks later. The authorities didn't want to get involved, a mutants and mutant-lovers who went to mutie clubs were the only ones hurt. Charles could not locate Dr. Essex or find out anything about him from Erik, who left to do his own search.

Blue. Wanda stared at the stick. This could not be happening.

"Oh, God," she whispered. 

Todd stuck his head in the door. "What's up, shnookums?"

Wanda burst into tears. "I'm pregnant!"

Todd narrowed his eyes. "Who?"

"I don't know!"

Todd was surprised at that, Wanda had struck him as being - well - not slutty. "Well, who could it be?"

Wanda looked at Todd. "Anyone."

Todd raised his eyebrows. So Wanda had made it with everyone? Everyone but him? He knew she didn't like him, but she would have sex with everyone else but him? "Who exactly have you had sex with, yo?"

"I don't know."

"What? Wanda, you know, you might want to consider a lifestyle change."

"You moron!" she hexed Toad into the wall. "It happened at Essex's! While we were all, you know, under the influence or something! Anyone could have taken advantage of my state!" She began to get hysterical.

Pietro walked in just then. "If it's any comfort, the person who did this to you was probably not consenting either. So whoever the father is, he's also a victim."

"WHAT?" screamed Wanda.

"Our father says that Dr. Essex likes to do genetic manipulation. Chances are he bred you with one of the boys at the nightclub."

"You make it sound like I am a farm animal."

"Wanda, that's how Essex sort of views us. As farm animals. Or, as lab rats."

Wanda began to cry. For some reason, abortion or adoption did not seem to be reasonable options to her. Either one seemed to her to be abandoning the child, which she just could not even imagine herself doing. People who abandoned their children, she thought, should be killed! Where, she wondered, did that thought come from? It's not as if Magneto had abandoned her. Somehow she felt as if some subliminal gremlin laughed as that thought crossed her mind.

"I'm keeping the baby. But as for the circumstances of my pregnancy, don't tell anyone," she begged. "Unless this has happened to someone else at the club, I don't want this to get out."

"Why not, yo?" asked Todd. "I mean, this way, it ain't your fault. When you become obviously pregnant, people will think you slept around or something."

"Because she would lose control, dolt!" hollered Pietro. Then, in a whisper, "To lose control like this, to be at someone else's mercy - these things are shameful."

"Magneto taught you that?" asked Todd.

"Yes," admitted Wanda.

"Well, what do we say, yo?" asked Toad.

"I'll just claim that I had a boyfriend over and that we... weren't careful. Oops." Wanda was thoughtful. "I'll just cry and Dad won't pry any further."


	3. Elfettes and Demons

Marvel owns the X-Men and related characters not me. Feel free to post. Takes place in an alternate third season that diverges sometime after "The Toad, the Witch and the Wardrobe." And, Spyke's powers are not going out of control.

Eight and a half months later, things were normal around the mansion. Jean and Scott were getting ready to go off to college while the rest of the students were planning for going back to school.

About 9 pm in the evening, suddenly the mansion began to rattle. Metal flew everywhere. The front door burst open and in walked Fred, terrified.

"'Kay, boss! 'Kay! We're in!"

Magneto flew inside and flew up the stairs. Suddenly he spotted a blue tail hanging out of a doorway. He concentrated his magnetism to make teleportation impossible, and flew right over to Kurt. He grabbed Kurt's throat, and turning Kurt around, began to wring his neck.

Just then, Mystique rushed in. "What the Hell are you doing, Lensherr?"

"I'm killing your son, Kurt!"

"Eric?" Xavier had just wheeled his way in.

"I'm killing Mr. Wagner. When I am done, you can send his remains back to Germany."

"Eric! Stop that!" Suddenly the room was full of angry X-Men, all of whom were aiming at Magneto with their attacks, or preparing to rush him if they didn't have long-range attacks.

"Why the Hell are you killing Kurt?" Mystique had rushed up the stairs when a large wooden cabinet that apparently contained a lot of metal flew at her, knocking her down the stairs.

"I think this is why." Wanda, in a wheelchair, was wheeled in by Pietro. She held a little bundle in her arms and was obviously no longer pregnant. 

Magneto released Kurt's throat a little and flew Kurt down to look at the bundle. A little blue face looked back. Looked, in the figurative sense, as its eyes were closed. There were large pointy ears (longer proportionally to the head than Kurt's), and looking down, Kurt saw a three-fingered hand. 

"She has two-toed digitigrade feet and a tail," snarled Magneto.

"So?" asked Kurt weakly. "Vhat's wrong vith that?"

"Nothing. She is a beautiful baby. But it does mean that I know who has been deflowering my daughter! You got her pregnant. You die. Any self-respecting father would do the same."

"Maybe it wasn't me. Maybe it was... Scott? Wait, no - Evan? Bobby? Eeeeeeep." Kurt's throat was being squeezed again.

"Father! Don't kill him!" Wanda looked desperate.

"Why not? He should have known better!"

"I never did anyzing vith Vanda! Honest!" squeaked Kurt.

"Oh, so I suppose she got pregnant all by herself?"

"Maybe you experimented with her baby like you did vith me!" spat out Kurt. "So zat's vhy it looks like me!"

"Father!" screamed Wanda. She couldn't summon the strength to hex him, having given birth only an hour before, in an infirmary in one of his nearby bases. "It's not his fault! It must have happened at Essex's."

Magneto released Kurt and thought for a second. "Of course! You're both second generation! So he'd love to breed a third...."

Wanda looked up at Magneto in dismay. "So - so little Talia here is an experiment?"

"Yes." The voice that said this was cold, hypnotic, and almost robotic. "I will take her now."

Everyone turned to see a ghastly figure. Chalk white skin, jet black eyes and clothes, a red diamond on the forehead, razor-sharp teeth, and glowing red eyes. He raised his hands and shot our yellow blasts of energy at Magneto, Wanda, and Kurt, rendering the first two unconscious and knocking Kurt backwards several feet. Fortunately, Wanda was holding little Talia in such a way that she did not drop her when she lost consciousness. Logan ran up and sliced through the man with his claws, but the man just laughed and blasted Logan into a wall. Charles tried to read his mind, but the blocks were so powerful that Charles fainted. Evan shot bone spikes at the man, but they passed through him without doing any real damage. Beast ran up and punched the man. His head stretched away from his body, but quickly snapped back and he punched Beast into the chandelier. Storm hit him with lightning. No effect. Rogue ran up and touched him, but her powers short-circuited and she fainted. One by one, all the attacks against him failed, and he had everyone knocked out except for Mystique, who was glowering in a corner, and for Kurt, who was stunned and unable to move. He walked over to the baby now resting in Wanda's lap.

Just then, Scott walked in. He had been out buying supplies for college, and he saw everyone lying unconscious on the floor and saw a nightmare walking toward an unconscious Wanda who was holding something that looked like a baby.

"Oh, my God! You!" As the figure turned toward him, Scott saw a face from his nightmares at the orphanage. He remembered dreams of just such a face watching him when he slept, and taking pieces out of his arm "for study." The face was evil, and the memories included a sense of horror that he had always felt at the orphanage, the sense that something was studying him, watching him, and using him.

"No, Scott, don't attack! Run!" yelled Kurt. "You can't hurt him!"

Scott didn't listen. He raised his glasses and squinted at the man, so as to avoid blasting the entire room. The chalk-skinned man threw his head back and laughed. Then the optic blast hit him. He flew back several feet and grimaced in pain. He looked at his midsection. It was full of steaming green sludge.

"Who are you?" demanded Scott.

"Nathaniel Essex!" said the man calmly. "Also known as Mr. Sinister."

Scott opened his eyes again. Another blast turned a good six inches of the left side of Sinister's abdomen to sludge. This time, though, Sinister counterattacked with the yellow blasts he shot from his fingers. Scott was knocked down for the count. Sinister grabbed the baby, and, touching a device on his waist, teleported away.


	4. Preparing for Battle

Marvel owns the X-Men and related characters not me. Feel free to post. Takes place in an alternate third season that diverges sometime after "The Toad, the Witch and the Wardrobe." And, Spyke's powers are not going out of control.

Giving birth to an elf was difficult enough a task, especially when its elfhood was only revealed when you actually had given birth (Wanda had resisted getting a sonogram). Now losing the baby - specifically, having it kidnapped - by a red-eyed demon man, was enough to send Wanda into hysterics. Fortunately, her powers were temporarily out of commission, due to the strain of childbirth, so she couldn't inadvertently hurt anyone.

By midnight, Magneto had calmed down considerably, and had now decided that the most important thing was getting his granddaughter back. He had even apologized to Kurt for attempting to genetically alter him, and to Scott for temporarily genetically altering him and his brother.

Right now he was talking to Scott.

"Perhaps playing God was not the way to protect mutantkind - I have just helped, I fear, Sinister to create a new species that puts all at risk."

"And," said Scott, "from what I know of you, you do desire eventual freedom in society. Freedom for mutants only, but freedom for someone. This Essex fellow seems rather totalitarian in ends as well as means, from what I know of him."

"From what..."

"I remember seeing him in my dreams in the orphanage. I don't know much about him. I just remember being... examined, I guess. Samples taken. I also remember hearing him drone on about the paradise he would create. Very - fascistic."

Magneto stiffened. "No matter. We need to get my granddaughter back. I owe Wanda that much. And apparently you can help me."

Scott nodded. "What do you know about Mr. Essex?"

"I know, well, some time after Charles and I went our separate ways, and then after I had put Wanda in the asylum, I began studying means of enhancing mutations. I believed that mutants would be discovered before there were enough of them to put up resistance, and the only way to save them would be to make them powerful enough so that the few who were alive could dominate the planet.

"I found out about a professor at a university named Essex who was interested in genetic engineering. He had studied anthropology and had heard rumors of some very powerful gems, which he sent out an expedition to find. The expedition included a man named Marko. Cain Marko. Cain apparently was angry at his half-brother for being "special" and for being loved more than he was. Cain brought back the gems to Professor Essex and the Professor helped Cain to activate his X-gene with them. He also developed anti-telepathic shielding and made a helmet for Cain made out of the material. Cain was to be a test subject, but hothead that he was, he attacked his brother's mansion - this mansion, I'm sure you know his brother was Charles Xavier - and with the help of Messrs. Richards, Storm, Storm, and Grimm, who were staying with him, he managed to get the helmet off and to stop him. Being a scientist, Mr. Richards helped Charles to build the stasis tank and to keep Cain suspended in there. Charles nearly died trying to keep Cain - Juggernaut - subdued until it could be built. This had happened prior to my association with the man."

Scott looked at Magneto. "Storm was in on this?"

"Not Ororo. A Sue Storm and a Johnny Storm. Along with Reed Richards and Ben Grimm. Altered wild-type humans who worked for the government. Very hush-hush. Have you heard of the Fantastic Four?"

"In tabloids like The Daily Bugle."

"Well, yes. They are real and they work for the government."

"Wow."

"This Essex fellow helped me, but he spent a lot of time doing volunteer work at an orphanage. Said he had a project going on there. Trying to find those like us and to help them make use of their powers. Although he wasn't a mutant, he had superpowers, so I considered him an ally. He helped me to build several of the devices I have used to enhance my and other's powers. He worked with me on altering Kurt - by the way, my experiments had nothing to do with Kurt's appearance. I was never able to complete them, thanks to Mystique. Eventually we grew apart when he said that his project at the orphanage would have to take his full time. According to my calculations, that would have been when you came there.

"We haven't seen each other in a long time, we occasionally spoke over the phone or, more recently, computer, but I had gone my own way with the research by then. There's a lot more to it, but that's the gist.

"He looked fairly normal most of the time, but when we were alone, he preferred his true form, the one you have seen."

"What powers does he possess?"

"His body functions are spread out evenly across his body. He doesn't have vital organs per se, and so is nearly invincible. He has a healing factor, telepathy and anti-telepathy [A/N defensive shields against telepathy], some telekinesis, shapeshifting, and he generates those little yellow bolts he throws at you."

"Anything else?"

"Probably. But I don't know what."

"How did he-?"

"He visited many places as a youngster. He was a famous doctor for the British Empire. Apparently, he stumbled across the tomb of a famous mutant I have heard about - En Sabah Nur."

"You mean the one who that spider we fought was guarding? Apocalypse?"

Magneto nodded. "I don't know where the tomb is. He wouldn't say. But I know that he got in there. The doors for keeping Apocalypse in could not keep Essex out. He apparently managed to wake the ancient mutant. Somehow, he was changed. He became Apocalypse's emissary into the world. I think - I think he is connected somehow to Mesmero. Maybe he enhanced Mesmero's powers. I don't know. But I knew even back before the little fiasco at the teen nightclub that Sinister's vision was more - extreme than mine. He is to me what I am to Xavier. And I fear that Apocalypse is even more so. Which is why I fought so hard against Apocalypse's release, even if futilely."

"Wait a second - British Empire?"

"Essex wouldn't tell me his age, but admitted that it had been more than a hundred years since his - transformation."

As Scott nodded, Kurt, Pietro, Jean, Rogue, Boom-Boom, Amara, Bobby, Spyke, and Logan walked out. They had been picked to recover Kurt and Wanda's daughter along with Scott. Kurt and Pietro because they were family, and because their powers could be used to rescue team members in trouble. Jean because her telekinetic powers could be useful in attacks. Bobby, Spyke, Amara, and Boom-Boom because they could fire projectiles or energy rays at people, or in Bobby's case, ice rays. Rogue was chosen because she was the only other member of any of the teams who would be able to fire optic blasts. She was to hold back and to touch Scott if he was put out of commission. Logan was there because he could help take out any henchmen Sinister might have.

Suddenly there was a rapping at the door. When Jean opened it, in walked Freddy, Colossus, Pyro, and Gambit. Colossus went over to Rogue.

"I am to transfer my power to you so you can be more durable than Scott under Sinister's attacks." With that he grabbed Rogue's face and held it until he dropped to floor unconscious.

"Me too," said Freddy. "Boss lady told me if I didn't she'd make life miserable for me. It's her granddaughter, too, you know." He touched Rogue and held until he fainted, which took a lot longer than with Colossus.

Rogue gained several pounds of weight suddenly, and Freddy seemed a little thinner. "No more - power-ups. Ah think Ah'll be too - out of my mind to be of much help if Ah get any more voices in mah head. 'Specially if Ah need ta drain Scott."

Gambit and Pyro stood with the group. Their powers both involved long-range attacks, so their reason for being there was obvious.

"Everyone ready?" asked Magneto. "I know where his nearest base is. So let's go."

"Erik." It was Charles. 

"What?"

"Don't make me regret putting you in charge of this little group for tonight."

"I won't misuse them against the wild-types. Even I know that there are worse things than wild-type humans, Charles. Our differences can wait - for now. I promise to bring your people back."


	5. Of Cyclopes and Slayers

Marvel owns the X-Men and related characters not me. Feel free to post. Takes place in an alternate third season that diverges sometime after "The Toad, the Witch and the Wardrobe." And, Spyke's powers are not going out of control.

Back at base, Sinister was cradling the baby in his arms. She was wailing, but he did not care. She was a tool, nothing more. He looked at her expressionlessly as he gently rocked her to sleep and then he took out the ruby-colored gem from his draw and placed it in an incubator-like device on the shelf.

"After I have enhanced you, you will grow to adulthood in less than a year. I will then impregnate you and we can begin creating the first of our portion of the master race.

"Yours will be the night race. The Nocturnal Ones. They will rule the planet at night and serve as the watchmen who keep the Earth running smoothly."

Sinister walked over to a cage in which Juggernaut was being held, wearing only small black shorts. Adamantium bars prevented him from getting out. While it was possible that Juggernaut would be able to smash through adamantium, he could only do it if he had a running start,and the cage was too small.

"The Juggernautians will come from you. They will be the policeman, enforcers, and warriors. Unfortunately, I cannot mate with you - well, not to produce children anyway, as you are male. I could mate you with an enhanced female mutant, but I believe that my DNA is the DNA that all aspects of the new master race must have. So I have made a female clone of myself - she was my first creation. She is just like me, only I caused the doubling of an X chromosome and destroyed the Y chromosome before I began to grow her zygote. I was fortunate enough to have connections in various orphanages and to be able to implant her into some of the more - promiscuous female members. They never realized that the pregnancy was - artificial. And then I convinced them to giver the baby up, and adopted her."

"And if I don't want to mate?" asked Juggernaut.

"You may be indestructible, but you are not unsubduable. My female associate can mentally force the desired response if she needs. You lack your helmet. You have no psychic defense.

"She is twenty years old, anyway, and can take any form she wishes - or that you wish. As you will not have a choice, I suggest that you lie back and enjoy it." Sinister grinned for a second. He loved having control. "I only wish that my maturation enhancer had been developed while she was still young enough to use it. Or when my second creation was young enough. Too bad it only works on very young babies."

"Second creation?"

"I performed the same cloning procedure on DNA from a test subject in an Omaha orphanage. The subject was male, the clone is female, as my clone was, so that I can mate with her to produce the third and final race. I have often wondered if her powers will be affected by the alteration of her sex relative to that of her parent. We will find out today when she manifests."

"How do you know she will manifest today?"

"I took some samples of her father's tissue. Recent ones. The proteins that mediate his mutant power are concentrated in the tissues I took. They should cause her powers to activate as well."

"Why don't you have tissue samples of him from before?"

"I do, but the protein I want degrades quickly and was impossible to synthesize. I needed a recent live sample."

"The final race will be the Slayers. I got the name from the soulless warriors from the movie _Krull_. They will provide air and space defense, as well as be my army for taking over other worlds. Together, the three master races will actively seek out and screen mutants, and those deemed worthy will be enhanced. The others will be killed. The wild types will be used first for slave labor, and then done away with as they become redundant."

"Who is this second girl cloned from?"

"Scott Summers. That is why I chose the name Slayer. Slayers are the counterpart to the Cyclopes in the movie _Krull_."

"Cyclopes?"

"Plural of Cyclops. Latin. Third declension. In any case, she is about ten years old now. I am developing a method of advancing maturity that will work on older subjects, and it should be done in a week or so. Then she too shall reach adulthood within a year. But first, I must make certain that she has the necessary powers."

Sinister pushed a button on his glove and a door slid open. A woman who looked exactly like he would have looked as a female walked in. She had on exactly the same clothes as well. Also a girl of about ten walked in.

Sinister prepared a syringe and beckoned the young girl to come to him. He gave her a quick shot in the arm. She suddenly keeled over in pain.

"My eyes! My eyes!" she wailed. Suddenly she opened them, and a powerful blast of green light came out, knocking out one wall of the lab. Sinister pressed a button on his belt, a necklace she wore around her neck glowed, and her eyes stopped shooting beams.

"Green. Then emerald quartz will allow you control until you learn to control them yourself." He handed her a pair of green sunglasses. "Put these on, and then I will turn off the power inhibitor in your necklace."

She did as she had been told, and was relieved to find that while she was still blasting out beams with her eyes, they were being held back by the quartz, which dissipated but did not absorb the energy.

"I will have a room covered in emerald quartz in which you can train. The room itself will be invulnerable to your powers."

Just then, Juggernaut noticed in one corner of the room armor made from ruby quartz. Although not bright, he knew one thing: ruby quartz was too fragile to make good armor. The only use would be to protect from Scott's optic beams. So that must be Sinister's weakness! After spreading Sinister all over the landscape when Sinister had found him again two weeks ago, Sinister had quickly reconstituted himself. It had seemed that nothing could hurt him, and when his henchman had removed Juggernaut's helmet, Sinister had mentally knocked him out. But he had a weakness, and Juggernaut planned to do anything he could to help the X-Men to use it.

"Juggernaut, this girl is, obviously, Slayer Summers. And now meet your new mate - Ms. Dexter!" He pointed to the female version of him. "She is, shall we say, in heat. So I will leave you alone. Remember, tell her who you want her to impersonate, and if that does not make it bearable, just lay back and think of England!" Mr. Sinister placed little Talia in the incubator-like device, and left with Slayer out of the blown-out wall, into the next room, and then out a door in that room.


	6. The Nasty Boys

Marvel owns the X-Men and related characters not me. Feel free to post. Takes place in an alternate third season that diverges sometime after "The Toad, the Witch and the Wardrobe." And, Spyke's powers are not going out of control.

The X-Jet had landed just outside of the fence enclosing Sinister's base.

Kurt 'ported Boom-Boom over the fence. Boom-Boom was pretty psyched at being out at 2 in the morning despite, or maybe because of, the danger involved in this attack. Magneto had helped them to disable most of Sinister's defenses, and from the mansion, Kitty had managed to hack in and disable most of the rest. Doctor Essex had apparently connected his computer to a lot of networks in an attempt to monitor the world, and she was able to attack back through the connection.

Boom-Boom walked over to the door and made four "bombs." Kurt 'ported back to the main group. The bombs exploded, creating a gaping hole in the front of the mansion.

Suddenly a dark-haired man with sideburns appeared. "Leave. Now."

Boom-Boom threw a bomb at him. He dodged it, and then lifted his walking stick. Suddenly roots popped out of the ground and enveloped Tabby. She screamed, but then her mouth was covered as well. Just then a glowing rectangle hit the base of the roots, exploding and destroying them. Logan then appeared and cut the roots that were around Tabby, freeing her. 

A spiked shillelagh came crashing down on Logan's head. Then another of the glowing rectangles hit the sideburned man with the stick and exploded, knocking him over and out.

"Dat's de three o 'hearts. Pow'ful 'nough to knock ya out, but will keep ya alive fer questionin'," stated Gambit, holding another glowing rectangle, which was revealed to be a playing card when he reabsorbed the charge.

"Ramrod!" shouted a voice. A pink-haired man and a bald man with tremendous eyebrows stepped out of the door. The bald man grew much bigger and tried to crush Gambit by pounding him, but Gambit jumped away. Suddenly flames and spikes were being shot at the man. Amara, Spyke and Pyro were attacking, Pyro using Amara's flames rather than his own flamethrowers in an attempt to save fuel. The pink-haired man looked on with amusement, and then opened his mouth wider than any human should be able to.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Amara, Spyke, Gambit and Pyro were bowled over by this loud scream.

"Aw, mate," said an Australian-sounding voice. "Ya got a problem with Ruckus here? Well, ya did attack Slab, ya know. Come ta Gorgeous, honey!" 

Gambit looked up in time to see a pair of very large hands grab him. He was pulled towards a blackish-purplish tar man. He charged a card and threw it into the tar man, but he absorbed the explosion pretty well, expanding and then pulling himself together.

"Gorgeous don't like bein' rejected, pretty boy!"

"Eat ice!" Bobby appeared and froze the tar man's body. He dropped Gambit on the ground.

"AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!"

Bobby was knocked over, and Amara, Spyke, Pyro, Tabby, and Logan, all of whom were on the ground, were pushed several feet backwards. Gambit had not been affected, not being in the direct path of the blast, but was still recovering from the previous blast and from the tar man's rough handling. Suddenly the pink-haired man felt a hard punch on his throat and in the next second was unconscious.

"Therethatoughtadoit," said Pietro. "Whataloudmouth." He then began to taunt the tall, bald man, who kept trying to pound him to the ground.

The tar man apparently had some ability to warm himself up, as he was suddenly thawed again. He picked up Gambit and pulled him into himself, trying to smother him with tar. Logan, recovering, noticed this and rushed to attack the bald man in order to free up Pietro.

"Pietro! Tornado! Now!"

Pietro nodded and ran to the tar man. He began running in circles, until he created a whirlwind that sucked the tar up into itself. Gambit's head quickly stuck out and he drew sharp, wheezing breaths. Pietro pulled him out of the whirlwind, then continued to run, eventually scattering the tar man all over the landscape. Gambit was safe, but he was too weak to move now.

"Gorgeous! No!" hollered the bald man, with what sounded like an Austrian accent. "Suggs! Where are you?"

"Does somewoon want Hairbag?" hollered a voice with an exaggerated Jamaican accent. A large, dark-skinned man that looked sort of like a black version of Sabretooth jumped into Wolverine. Suddenly Hairbag's rather extensive body hair turned into sharp quills, and he tore into Logan with claws. Pietro ran towards him, and was brought down with a large slash to his left side with Hairbag's claws.

All seemed lost, until Hairbag flew into the bald man. "Uggh! Hairbag, what did you do that for?"

"I didn't, Slab! I wuz pushed!"

"What the..." Slab and Hairbag found themselves lifted into the air. Jean Gray walked towards them, her hands on her head. "Who are you?"

"We're mercenaries!" sneered the bald-headed man, Slab. "We work for pay, and the master pays us well! We're the Nasty Boys! Ruckus, Ramrod, Hairbag, Slab, and Gorgeous George!"

"Wasn't he a wrestler?"

"No, but he's named after one!"

Suddenly a girl with green sunglasses walked out. She removed her glasses and blasted Jean Gray with a green optic blast. Luckily, the girl's powers were fluctuating in their intensity, so she was just knocked out, not killed. Slab and Hairbag were dropped to the ground, where they began to recover their balance. She was about to attack Logan as well when one of Tabby's bombs dropped at her feet and exploded. She just managed to dodge it, but she was distracted enough for Logan to rabbit-punch her out.

"Just a kid. But a dangerous one," hissed Logan. He ran over to Jean and shook her awake. "C'mon, we gotta retreat! Slab and Hairbag are still conscious!" Indeed, they had gotten up and were running at Jean and Logan. Gorgeous was also apparently recovering, with great globs of tar moving towards each other and combining like the T-1000 from _Terminator 2_. "Can you 'teek' 'em?" he asked.

"No, I can't use my telekinesis... I'm too weak. But I can telepathically wake everyone who is out and get them to ignore their pain so we can run back to the X-Jet..."

She did so, and the X-Men ran from the Nasty Boys, and the jet took off.

Meanwhile, inside the base, Magneto was attempting to access a computer terminal to figure out where they were. "The diversion worked. You were able to 'port us all inside."

"Ja. Zanks to Forge's new invention allowing for safer blind teleports. I'm so glad I let Forge gauge my abilities, even if I vasn't glad at the time." Kurt shuddered, remembering the monsters in the Hellish dimension he 'ported through, that had escaped into Bayville High.

"So, it's just you, Cyclops, Rouge, and I. We will rescue little Talia, don't you worry."


	7. Confronting Sinister

Marvel owns the X-Men and related characters not me. Feel free to post. Takes place in an alternate third season that diverges sometime after "The Toad, the Witch and the Wardrobe." And, Spyke's powers are not going out of control.

Sinister looked with obvious pleasure at Ms. Dexter as she walked out of the room where Juggernaut's cage was. "Was the mating successful?"

"Perfectly. In nine months you will have the hybrid you wish for. Unless you can speed up pregnancy as well?"

"I can, but not for you. Your body chemistry is - unique. I have no one else to test my methods on. I could make another clone, but I don't want too many clones of me running about at once. At least not yet. Too much chance one will do something mad like turn on me. I much prefer caution, when I can reduce the risks without causing too much delay."

A computer beeped.

"Ah, good. Talia's first enhancement is complete. She hasn't been improved at all yet, but she will now mature more quickly and have temporarily augmented intelligence allowing her to coordinate her mental and physical ages."

"That's not an improvement?" asked Ms. Dexter.

"It is, but it won't effect her eventual powers or make her smarter in the long run. It will just speed up the first, oh, twenty years of her life. After that, she will be no different than if she had not received the treatment, except... she will be about nineteen years ahead of her chronological age."

Suddenly an alarm went off.

"Quick! Ms. Dexter! To the Essex-flyer! Evacuate. I'll handle any problems. You're much too valuable in your condition to be put at risk!"

Ms. Dexter smiled. She knew that she was just a commodity to Mr. Sinister, but she didn't mind as long as she was a valuable one. She immediately left to run to the Essex-flyer.

Mr. Sinister got up and stared at the metal door to the hallway in front of him. It bent and flew off of its hinges. Magneto, Rogue, and Cyclops burst in.

Scott didn't bother saying or threatening anything. He just pressed his visor and shot a beam of concentrated optic blast at the red diamond in Sinister's chest. Sinister was blown backwards several feet, and the diamond was replaced by green goo. Sinister immediately shot Cyclops and knocked him across the floor into the hallway. Rogue fell back while Magneto kept moving metal objects toward Sinister to distract him and to shield Rogue.

Magneto managed to dodge quite a few blasts before Mr. Sinister hit him and he reeled and fell to the floor.

Then it happened. Sinister got hit with another optic blast. He turned to see a quite chubby, metal girl [A/N Rogue using Blob and Colossus' powers] standing in the doorway with glowing red eyes. She let loose another blast, and another, right at his body. He blasted her as well, but the blasts bounced off of her without much effect. Finally, he used his telepathic abilities to let a psychic blast loose. This slowed Rogue down but did not stop her. He let loose a telepathic and a telekinetic attack, forcing her against the hallway wall and trying to shut down her consciousness from within. He kept firing his yellow energy bolts at her. She just kept blasting him until his entire right side was green sludge. Finally, with the last of his strength, Mr. Sinister knocked her unconscious.

He then rushed into the room where Talia had been enhanced. She should still be in the enhancer, which would be simply acting as an incubator now that the treatment was over. He came in just in time to see Kurt open up the device, grab her, and 'port away. Then he ported into the adamantium cage, grabbed Juggernaut, and 'ported away again.

Sinister concentrated on healing his devastated body. He had left a trail of sludge all the way across the floor. Normally wounds would heal fast because most lasers did not actually destroy his flesh, they just pushed it away; if a shot from a normal laser cannon had blasted a hole in his side, the material that had been where the hole was would simply have been compressed into the rest of his body, making the material around the wound denser, or else the area around the hole would be upraised with the displaced material. But these wounds actually destroyed parts of his flesh. To heal would require a lot of nutrients. He hollowed out his midsection in order to get the material to replace the outer layers of the parts of his body that had been destroyed. Nonetheless, the optic blasts had left his entire body weakened, and the strength he had used attacking Rogue had weakened him further.

So he was unprepared when Kurt 'ported in, ready for a fight. He had 'ported the others back to the X-Jet, which had "left" and then come back in stealth mode (Jean gave him the coordinates to make it). Now it was just him and Sinister.

"You kidnapped mein tochter, Essex, and you will pay!" Kurt kicked at Mr. Sinister, and sent him flying into the wall. In his optic blast-weakened state he was vulnerable to normal attacks. Then Kurt jumped over and grabbed him and began teleporting around the room. This made Sinister feel pain, great, blinding pain. But Kurt was wearing out as well. So he made one last 'port with Sinister, two miles straight up, and then 'ported alone to the X-Jet.

Sinister hit the roof of his base like a bag of wet cement, crashing through it into the floor below. 

He had read Kurt's mind a little during his ordeal, and discovered something that terrified him.

__

Bombs. Magneto had planted bombs.

He pressed a button on a device on his waist, which had survived the crash due to Sinister's great care in making it durable. "Nasty Boys? Come here and make sure you bring Slayer!"

As soon as they had gathered, Sinister pressed another button. He, the Nasty Boys, and Slayer, were all teleported to the Essex-flyer two. It took off immediately, and was a mile away when the explosion was heard.

"Damn! My base was destroyed! And all of my back-up clones of Talia! This puts a crimp in my plans, but it's just a delay, ultimately." Becoming unemotional again, he said, "I will win in the end. It is inevitable. But if my paradise is to be achieved, I'll need some help." He also resolved to make another suit of ruby quartz armor and this time to wear it all the time so that he would be protected.

Sinister stared at Ruckus. "Ruckus. Get on the communicator. Find me Mesmero."


	8. Resolution

At the mansion, several scenes were taking place.

Kurt and Wanda were happy that Talia was safe. Considering the circumstances, they decided not to get married, despite Magneto's threats. They did not have any feelings for each other, at least, not yet, and a pregnancy that was the result of both parties involved being under mind-control was not exactly the basis for a relationship.

Juggernaut had insisted on talking to Charles alone. As he had no helmet, Charles judged him not to be a threat, provided he use a low-grade telepathic projection to keep him somewhat subdued.

When Charles learned of what Sinister had told Cain, he was very worried. Sinister's vision for the future would be terrible indeed.

But for now, he needed to help Cain work through the trauma he had experienced. He, of all people, the Juggernaut, had been in essence raped by a woman. And now his son or daughter was growing inside of her, and he didn't know where she was.

Scott had just left for college, but beforehand Cain had insisted on explaining to him Sinister's apparent plan to correct his weakness. 

"Ruby quartz armor. Listen, Scott. If he attacks again, he'll use ruby quartz armor to protect himself from your blasts. You're gonna need to make certain you have a way to cut through his armor."

"Why, thank you, Juggernaut. I must say, being on the same side is... weird."

Kurt and Amanda were talking on the lawn outside the mansion.

"So, Kurt, you have a daughter now? And it wasn't exactly... good grief, I don't know how to explain what happened. It's so weird. So this Essex guy got you and Wanda to - to get pregnant?"

"Uh... Vanda got pregnant. As far as I can tell, I didn't," joked Kurt.

"So, what does this mean for us?"

"I vish I knew."

Wanda was cooing at the baby in her crib. The little "elfette" as Logan called Talia, was happy. Wanda took out another bottle of formula. While she did feed the baby naturally, she found that it was so ravenously hungry that she needed to supplement its feed with formula. It was as if the baby's metabolism were sped up enormously...

At his new base, Sinister was livid. "That dolt named Logan hit Slayer in the back of the head so hard that her brain is damaged just like brother's! Damn it! I can't seem to heal it!"

"How's her brain damaged?" asked Ruckus.

"Her eye beams have become constitutive."

"Huh?"

"Constant. She is always firing them, just like her brother. Pity, she'll need green goggles just like he needs red ones." 

"By the way, nice armor, boss."

"Thank you."

Dr. Essex walked over to his supercomputer. He pressed a button, and a tattooed face appeared.

"Yes?"

"Mesmero. Have you contacted En Sabah Nur?"

"Yes."

"When will you unlock the third door?"

"Preparations are underway. Are you still willing to uphold your part of the bargain?"

"Yes."

The screen switched off.

"Apocalypse can do what he wants," whispered Sinister. "But in the end, artificial selection beats natural selection hands down. The process MUST be controlled. If he fails to see that, then he shall be dealt with."

FINIS

My history of Sinister is an attempt to reconcile the fact that in the comicverse he was a wild-type human modified by Apocalypse with the fact that in XME Apocalypse is imprisoned. 

In the comicverse, Juggernaut was not a mutant, but gained his powers from the Gem of Cytorak. In XME, he was a mutant who used mysticism to activate his powers. As the Gems of Cytorak get a namecheck by Magneto in "Cauldron Part II" as crystals which give off mutation-enhancing radiation. So I decided to relate them to Juggernaut.

Sinister is Latin for left, Dexter is Latin for right, so Ms. Dexter's name was a bit of a play on words.

Slayer Summers' first name has nothing to do with Buffy, has everything to do with _Krull_, a most excellent movie.

I never saw the Marauders in action, but I saw the Nasty Boys in the 1990s X-Men cartoon series, minus Ramrod. So I used the Nasty Boys instead of the Marauders.

What is Sinister doing with the tissue samples of all the mutants? I'll answer that later.

Talia Josephine "T.J." Wagner is a character from an alternate universe in the comic book series "Exiles." She is the daughter of Kurt and Wanda.

Mutants ARE humans. They're just not wild-type humans.

The green sludge in Sinister is how Scott's blasts affected him in the 1990s X-Men cartoon.


End file.
